T1D Exchange Clinical Registry Enrollment Exceeds 12,000

First results presented at ADA’s 71st
Scientific Sessions

June 24, 2011 05:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Leona M. and Harry B.Helmsley Charitable Trust and
the Jaeb Center for Health Research announced today that over
12,000 people with type 1 diabetes have enrolled in the T1D Exchange
Clinical Registry, making it one of the largest type 1 diabetes datasets
in the United States and worldwide. The announcement was made in San
Diego during the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American
Diabetes Association (ADA), along with the first presentation of data
from the registry. The first data from the T1D Exchange Clinical
Registry, “Frequency of Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose Is Associated
with Hemoglobin A1c Levels in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes Enrolled in the
T1D Exchange Clinical Registry,” was presented today at the ADA’s
Scientific Sessions (Abstract number 1234-P poster session Saturday,
June 25, 2011: 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM)

The T1D Exchange is a three-year, $26 million project funded by the
Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Type 1 Diabetes
Program. The T1D Exchange combines critical components of traditional
clinical research with the expanding fields of health information
technology and social networking. In addition to this registry, the
program will also have a type 1 diabetes portal where eligible members
can connect and collaborate in a social media setting. Further, a
biobanking service is being developed to work in parallel with T1D
Exchange to allow researchers to easily access samples from a
pre-identified cohort of consented individuals.

“The T1D Exchange platform is intended to bring together individuals
with type 1 diabetes, clinicians and researchers to advance the
understanding of type 1 diabetes, identify challenges in treatment and
control and allow easier access to meaningful disease-specific data,”
said Janak Joshi, Executive Director of the T1D Exchange. “It is very
exciting to see the dramatic pace at which this registry has grown in a
very short period of time. This is just the beginning. At a time when
the focus of healthcare in the United States is being directed at
patient outcomes, the T1D Exchange is unprecedented in its potential to
change the lives of those living with type 1 diabetes. We look forward
to working on many studies and to launching the biorepository and the
social media site, Glu, which is a new approach to social networking for
people with type 1 diabetes.”

Individuals with type 1 diabetes are being enrolled into the T1D
Exchange Clinical Registry at 67 centers throughout the United States.
Participants span a wide range of ages, from infants under 1 year of age
to adults over age 90, with representation across a broad spectrum of
racial and ethnic groups. The registry also includes more than 100
participants who have had type 1 diabetes for more than 50 years. The
T1D Exchange is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information,
please email info@t1dexchange.org

“The registry is growing at a very impressive pace, with about 2,000 new
participants a month. We expect that this large dataset will be
instrumental in helping the type 1 diabetes community gain important
information about the disease,” said Roy W. Beck, MD, PhD, Executive
Director of the Jaeb Center. “The study we presented at the ADA meeting,
which demonstrated that more frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose
is associated with lower hemoglobin A1c levels in children, illustrates
the important role the T1D Exchange will play by providing data that
influences the dialogue on how to support better care for people with
type 1 diabetes.”

“The vision of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s
Type 1 Diabetes Program is to support research, treatment and care
management efforts in type 1 diabetes—from basic science to grass root
efforts such as summer camps for children. We believe these efforts will
create enormous efficiencies that advance type 1 diabetes research and
connect stakeholders within this community,” said Dana Ball, Program
Director of the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Type 1 Diabetes Program.

About the Jaeb Center for Health Research

The Jaeb Center for Health Research in Tampa, Florida, was established
in 1993 as a freestanding, nonprofit coordinating center for
multi-center clinical trials and epidemiologic research. The Jaeb
Center’s focus is on projects involving eye disorders or type 1
diabetes. For more information, please visit www.jaeb.org.

About The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, established in
1999, is administered by four Trustees selected by Leona Helmsley. As a
continuation of Mr. and Mrs. Helmsley’s generous giving throughout their
lifetimes, the Trust supports a diverse range of organizations with a
major focus on health and medical research, in addition to programs in
human services, education and conservation. Since 2009, the Trust has
committed over $85 million to type 1 diabetes research and programs
through the Helmsley Type 1 Diabetes Program. For more information,
please visit www.helmsleytrust.org.